Stolen Vows

by Sterling, Stephanie

  “What the hell is going on here?” Ian roared. He looked from Tavish, to his sister (clad only in her nightdress), to Roan MacRae.

  “Tis just what I’d like to ken, Ian!” Tavish jumped in. “What are ye doing with my fiancé, MacRae?”

  “What am I -” Roan choked. He froze, taking a moment to glance at the hated-filled faces staring back at him. He tried to jump away from Isla. Suddenly it felt as if she was actually burning him, but her arms were wound around his waist like iron shackles.

  “MacRae! I demand an answer!” Tavish yelled, glancing in feigned horror at the other members of his clan.

  “You bastard,” Roan hissed under his breath as he reached the unsettling conclusion that he was about to be murdered.

  “Isla, come away,” Ian spat. He grabbed his sister by the arm and yanked her away from the outsider.

  Roan waited for Isla to say something, anything, to explain the matter; He knew that no one was going to listen to him if he tried to tell the truth. No one would believe a MacRae, but surely they’d believe the girl. However, Isla made no effort to explain. Roan watched Ian take in his sister’s black eye and bloody lip. It was only a half-second later that the furious Cameron launched forward, knocking Roan to the ground.

  Roan fought back as well as he was able, but it was hardly a fair fight. Tavish leapt into the fray, and soon the other Camerons joined in. Roan caught someone square on the jaw, but then a boot landed a kick in the center of his gut and he doubled over. He heard a woman scream, and then everything went black.

  ..ooOOoo..

  “Here now, let me just -”

  Isla winced as Gara dabbed at her lip with a damp rag. “Tis fine, really,” she mumbled and pushed her friend’s hand away.

  “Tis nea fine!” Gara said, tears welling up in her eyes. “I should nae have left ye alone with that MacRae beast loose in the castle!”

  “Tis nae yer fault, Gara,” Isla said quickly. It’s mine, she thought as a heavy weight of guilt settled in the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t explain why she hadn’t set anyone straight about what really happened in the corridor. Perhaps it was because she knew that no one would believe her? They would send her back to Tavish again, and she could only imagine the punishment she would have to endure for refusing him a second time.

  Gara dragged Isla away from the fighting and back toward her room. The other woman’s anxious chatter led Isla to a very unsettling conclusion. They thought it was Roan who had tried to hurt her.

  Isla looked anxiously toward the door. She wanted to set things right. She just needed to work out what to do.

  “Yer brothers will want to speak to ye, Isla,” Gara said quietly. Isla simply sighed and nodded.

  It wasn’t long until there was a knock at the door. Ian walked in, followed by their younger brother, James.

  “I’ll just go and -” Isla didn’t catch the end of the sentence. Gara jumped up from the seat beside Isla’s bed and scurried out of the room. A harsh scowl from Ian followed her as she went.

  “Twas nae Gara’s fault, Ian,” Isla repeated for her brother to hear.

  He shrugged his shoulders wearily. “I canna help but think that if only she had nae left ye -”

  “Then he would have hurt both of us,” Isla said carefully, which earned a start from her brother that he tried to hide.

  “Well, regardless,” Ian sighed. He sat down in the seat Gara had just vacated. “Father is talking to Tavish,” he said.

  “What?” Isla choked, sitting up quickly.

  “Tis okay,” Ian shushed her gently, taking his sister’s hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. “He’ll still marry ye.”

  Isla’s eyes bulged. No! She had thought she was safe from that at least!

  “Tavish -” Ian cleared his throat awkwardly. “Well, Tavish is demanding father increase yer dowry,” he frowned, but gave his shoulders a helpless shrug. “He is within his rights to do so I suppose. Uncle said he’d help. He says tis his fault for letting a MacRae inside Castle Cameron in the first place,” he growled.

  “Where is Roan?” she asked fearfully.

  “He will nae hurt ye again!” James piped in vehemently. “He canna.”

  “He canna?” Isla asked. She looked warily from one brother’s face to the other. “What do ye mean?” she demanded. “Ye have nae - he’s nae -”

  “He’s nae dead yet,” Ian spat. “Uncle Douglas would nae let us rip him limb from limb. He said we’d perform the execution properly tomorrow morning, that we would nae lower ourselves to behaving in the manner of the MacRaes.”

  “Execution?” The word fell from Isla’s numb lips. Her world was suddenly spinning. “Ye canna kill him!”

  Ian and James exchanged a puzzled look. “Why the hell nae?” James blurted, which earned him a harsh glare from Ian.

  “Isla -” he began, but she interrupted.

  “What if there’s a bairn?” Isla blurted the first thing that came to her mind. She avoided looking at Ian’s face after she said this, but was able to imagine his guilty expression. For the first time in his life, he didn’t seem to know what to do.

  “Isla, what are ye saying?” he asked gently.

  “For God’s Sake, Ian, dinna make her say it!” James barked at his older brother. “He must have done it this afternoon when he found Isla out by the roadside, and gone back for seconds this evening. We were lucky Tavish caught him!”

  Isla decided to play along with the story. She offered a small nod. For once she was grateful for the rash nature of her younger sibling. She didn’t know how she would have answered Ian’s question on her own. She wasn’t even sure where her own lie had sprung from! But she knew that she couldn’t let Roan die, and that she would do anything to escape from Tavish. The shadow of a very dangerous plan began to take form in her mind.

  “I kenned Uncle Douglas should have let us finish him off then and there!” James raged.

  “Nae!” Isla cried again. Weren’t they listening to her? “I dinna want him dead!”

  “Nae?” James blinked in shock.

  “What do ye want, Isla?” Ian asked, much more in control of himself than their brother.

  “I want -” she took a very deep breath. “I want to marry him.”

  Isla didn’t think that anything else she could have said would have produced such a completely stunned reaction from her two brothers. They positively gaped at her.

  “Yer nae serious?” Ian finally mustered the self-composure to speak.

  “Of course she’s nae serious!” James answered for her. “She’s clearly taken a knock to the head.” He pointed to her bruises. “See, obviously nae in her right state of mind.”

  Isla glared at James, and waved his hand away. “I’m completely serious,” she argued. “I want to marry Roan MacRae!”

  ..ooOOoo..

  Roan groaned and rubbed his head, squinting in the dim light of the Cameron dungeon. It was almost pitch black and both of his eyes were so bloody and swollen that he could barely force them open. He wondered why he was still alive. He knew the Cameron’s didn’t mean to let him live. He just wondered how long they would draw out his torture.

  You’re innocent you fool! A voice whispered in his head. Roan didn’t know whether to nurse that flicker of hope or to extinguish it. He’d thought that Isla would have explained things long ago. He didn’t know how long he had been unconscious, but he suspected that it was almost dawn. What had happened? Had she held her tongue? Did they not believe her? Of course, the Camerons had never really needed a reason to kill a MacRae.

  The echo of footsteps in the hall was Roan’s first clue that something was about to change. The footsteps were followed by low voices and then the groan of a lock and whine of hinges as his cell door was opened. He winced as the light hit him. He squinted up from his position on the floor and made out the form of Ian Cameron, Isla’s brother. Was that good or bad, Roan wondered?

  If the expression on Ian’s face was anything to judge by, i
t was definitely bad.

  “Isla told me what ye did.”

  “Thank God,” Roan sagged with relief.

  Ian shot him a strange look and then continued. “She’s also begged us to spare yer life.”

  “All right,” Roan said slowly. Something about this wasn’t quite right. If Isla had told her brothers how he’d saved her then why was his life still in danger?

  “We took some convincing I can assure ye,” Ian growled. “And if ye lay so much as a finger on her again I’ll -”

  “What do ye mean, ‘again’?” Roan interrupted, his blood suddenly turning to ice his veins. His thoughts turned slowly in his head. “What exactly did she say, Cameron?” he asked, but Ian simply scowled, so furiously that Roan braced his broken body for another beating.

  “I’m here to tell ye that there are two ways yer getting out of this cell, MacRae,” he spat, as if every single word was offensive to him. Roan knew better than to interrupt. “As a dead man,” he paused, “or as my sister’s fiancé.”

  “What?” Roan choked.

  Ian ignored him. “Now I dinna ken how my sister can stomach the thought of letting ye within a hundred feet of her, but lucky for ye, she can. If that changes, I’ve told her to let me ken immediately.”

  “I dinna touch -” Roan began furiously, but Ian once again continued as if he hadn’t spoken.

  “Our Laird has given his reluctant blessing to the union. He kens how highly yer regarded by yer own Laird and dinna want to provoke outright war between our two clans,” Ian snorted.

  “Cameron! I’m telling ye -”

  “And I’m telling ye!” Ian snarled, actually acknowledging Roan for the first time in several minutes. “Two ways, MacRae,” he spat, holding up two fingers and then pointed towards the door. “Now tell me, which way is it going to be?”

  There was, of course, only one answer that Roan could give.

  ..ooOOoo..

  He said yes.

  Isla couldn’t believe that MacRae had said yes! She was getting away with her lie. More importantly, she would be free of Tavish at last. Of course, Isla knew that she couldn’t run from the truth forever. There were two other people who knew what had really happened: Roan and Tavish.

  Isla knew Tavish. She knew how he might try and take revenge, but Roan? He was a complete mystery, a virtual stranger, and she had just managed to bind herself to him eternally.

  Now that she had time to think, Isla was concerned about the rashness of her actions. Why had she done that? Was it because he’d been kind to her? Because he’d soothed her ankle, and saved her from Tavish?

  Isla wondered what Roan thought about the whole predicament. He would be furious, of course. He had every right to be, but how would Roan’s fury present itself? He was a MacRae. Isla hadn’t stopped to consider how many difficulties that would create, but now that she paused to think, all she had ever heard about the MacRae’s was that they were violent and brutish, and now she was going to marry one.

  ..ooOOoo..

  The very next morning, Roan was granted all of ten minutes to wash his face and to don a clean shirt before Ian dragged him to the chapel inside Castle Cameron. As he stood at the front of the aisle waiting for his bride to arrive, Lachan finally began to believe that this was all real. These people were seriously going to force him to marry the girl.

  Roan took a deep breath, wincing at the pain it caused his bruised ribs, and scowled at the altar. In that moment, Roan thought he might actually prefer death to this bizarre ordeal. He wasn’t afraid to die. He had ridden to Castle Cameron fully expecting the worst, but he made the journey because it was his Laird’s command. Roan believed in duty and honor, and in dying for those ideals if it was called for, but he refused to ruin his life without a fight for no reason! He was going to get to the bottom of this sham, even if it was too late to do anything about it.

  Roan rued the moment he had spotted the woman by the roadside. He also cursed himself for being stupid enough to leave his room and to wander the castle alone. He clenched and unclenched his fists, as he thought about all the chances he had missed to avoid this fate.

  Roan refused to turn around and look at his bride when she finally entered the sanctuary. He kept his back rigid and his head lifted high. Isla Cameron was going to regret trapping him in her snares. That was one vow he intended to make and keep.

  Roan kept his eyes forward and his jaw set, but glanced down at Isla from out of the corner of his eye.

  Roan was surprised to find her staring at him. Her eyes were riveted on his face. He was finally able to determine that they were green, the flecks of color brought out by both the mossy hue of her dress and the fading bruises on her cheeks. What a sight we must make, Roan thought. Both he and his bride were beaten black and blue. Roan would have laughed at the absurdity of the situation if things had not been so deadly serious.

  Roan barely noticed when the ceremony began. Ian had to prod him sharply in the back when it was time to speak his vows. Roan spat the words out like poison. His voice grew harsher with every line that he was required to speak. Isla’s voice, in contrast, was barely a whisper. She was asked to repeat one line twice, her words barely decipherable.

  Roan realized that Isla’s body was shaking just as hard as her voice when he was asked to take her. He couldn’t help but frown. Hadn’t she planned this whole charade? Wasn’t this what she wanted? Maybe she was just as trapped as him? Roan didn’t really see how that was possible, but something in the way she was standing there beside him, teary and trembling, tugged at his heartstrings.

  Roan forced his tone to soften, as he in turn was forced to speak the final words that would bind him unbreakably to Isla Cameron. Isla MacRae, Roan corrected himself bitterly.

  When the pronouncement came that they were man and wife, it was not followed by any jovial call to ‘kiss the bride’ – that was fine by Roan, he couldn’t imagine that anything would ever induce him to kiss the woman that was now his wife.

  ..ooOOoo..

  Isla thought she might actually be ill. All the warmth that she remembered on Roan’s face the day before was gone. It had been replaced by a burning anger. Well what else could she expect? Roan had never volunteered to rescue her. She doubted that he even understood what he was rescuing her from, but she had altered the course of his entire life to suit her plan. She couldn’t deny that the anger was justified. The only way out now for either of them was through death. Isla reflected, rather grimly, that her death might not be very far away if she had misjudged her new husband as badly as she feared. It was a long ride back to Castle MacRae. No one would be around to prevent an “accident” if Isla were to stumble off a cliff - or onto the end of Roan’s sword.

  Isla stumbled as she walked back up the aisle. Roan caught her, and offered a puzzled frown. At least that was an improvement on the black scowl he’d been wearing throughout the ceremony. Isla’s heart gave a painful, guilty beat when she looked up into his beaten face. My fault, she thought, all my fault, deciding that she couldn’t really blame Roan if he took his freedom back by force.

  No one had organized any of the ceremonies that typically followed a Cameron wedding. The Camerons were not celebrating this union. There was no large feast, no dancing and no speeches. There was a simple meal of roasted Highland beef in the Laird’s hall, a cask of ale and then an awkward nothingness that no one seemed to quite know how to fill.

  The hours wore on slowly. Roan didn’t say a word during dinner. He ate hungrily and Isla had a nasty suspicion this was the first time he had eaten since arriving at the castle. Roan concentrated on his food and ignored his new bride. She couldn’t keep her eyes from drifting towards him, though.

  Isla had controlled matters up until now. She had forced their marriage. It still didn’t seem quite real, but very soon she would be at the sole mercy of Roan MacRae.

  “Ye need time to pack I suppose?” Roan said gruffly. Isla jumped when she heard his voice after such a long silence.
<
br />   “To pack?”

  “We’re leaving,” Roan growled. “as soon as possible.” Sitting in the seat next to his sister, Ian tensed. Roan saw the reaction and shot the other man a fierce glare. “Unless ye mean to continue keeping me prisoner here?”

  “Ye dinna need to be leaving immediately, MacRae,” Ian grunted.

  “Oh, I think I do,” Roan snorted in reply. He looked at Isla and gave her a cool, calculating look. “She could stay here though, until I’m ready for her back at Erchlochy Castle.”

  “Like ye’d come back for her,” James spat in disgust.

  Isla drew in her breath with a sharp hiss as Roan turned to look at her younger brother. She was glad they were sitting far enough apart that Roan couldn’t reach James, because the glint in the MacRae’s eye was murderous. He opened his mouth to speak, but was prevented from saying anything as the Cameron Laird and his wife had just stood up, everyone else rose to their feet too.